Electrical control panel mounting channel with adjustable bracket for wire way cover



Dec. 9. 1969 N. H. KOERTGE 3,483,434

ELECTRICAL CONTROL PANEL MOUNTING CHANNEL WITH ADJUSTABLE BRACKET FOR WIRE WAY COVER Filed May 23, 1968 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Dec. 9, 1969 N. H. KOERTGE 3,483,434

ELECTRICAL CONTROL PANEL MOUNTING CHANNEL WITH ADJUSTABLE BRACKET FOR WIRE WAY COVER 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed May 23, 1968 3mm 384% w. 80%,

United States Patent O 3,483,434 ELECTRICAL CONTROL PANEL MOUNTING CHANNEL WITH ADJUSTABLE BRACKET FOR WIRE WAY COVER Nobel H. Koertge, Elm Grove, Wis., assignor to Cutler Hammer, Inc., Milwaukee, Wis., a corporation of Delaware Filed May 23, 1968, Ser. No. 731,392 Int. Cl. H02]: 1/02, 11/00 US. Cl. 317119 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE An upstanding post for a snap-on wire way cover is provided with a horizontal leg which extends through an opening in the sidewall of a relay mounting channel. An interfitting nib and hole arrangement of the leg and channel base permits transverse lateral adjustment of the bracket type post member to one of a plurality of positions. The outer end of the horizontal leg rests upon a control panel surface, and by securing the mounting channel to the control panel, the sidewall opening therein bears upon the horizontal leg between the ends to hold the member secure.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to mounting channels for securing electrical relays and the like to control panels, and in particular to an adjustable support member for wire way covers to be used therewith.

It is the practice of manufacturers of electrical control components such as relays and the like to supply the customer with prepared channel strips for quickly mounting such components to a panel. It is economically more feasible for the manufacturer to tool up and supply such hardware in quantity than for each panel builder to spend many man-hours in drilling several mounting holes in each panel for each device to be mounted.

The mounting channels are supplied in a variety of lengths which may be readily cut to shorter lengths if necessary and include captive screws for fastening the relays thereto. The channels may be secured to the panel with one screw every third or fourth relay to greatly reduce the number of holes required to be drilled by the panel builder.

Modern panel boards commonly contain many rows of relays or the like and the spaces between such rows form natural wire ways for the multitude of conductors used to interconnect the relays. To protect and conceal the wiring, plastic cover members are commonly provided which snap onto a plurality of upstanding post members located midway between the rows of the relays. US. Patent No. 3,225,264 shows a common form of such post and cover construction, the posts being threadably secured in tapped holes formed in the panel. This construction requires the panel builder to drill and tap the holes for each post member. A modification of this construction has been to provide a snap-in mounting post construction in which holes are drilled or otherwise formed in the panel and the lower ends of the posts are suitably configured to be snapped into place. This also requires the panel builder to somehow form the additional holes in the panel.

In this invention a mounting post for the wire way cover is provided which does not require any holes or otherwise special formation of the panel by the panel 'builder, but instead relies on the flat surface thereof in cooperation with a somewhat modified mounting chan-' nel for the relays. Since the spacing between rows of relays on a panel may vary somewhat the posts must be located very near the centerline between rows to permit the covers to extend uniformly between the rows. Therefore, the cooperating post and mounting channel of this invention have been provided with a transverse lateral adjustment feature for the posts to accommodate the various spacings.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a wire way cover support post for an electrical control .panel which does not require any special formation of the panel individual thereto.

It is a further object of this invention to provide a wire way cover support post and control apparatus mounting channel for an electrical control panel which cooperate with each other and the flat surface of the panel to secure the support post. i

It is still a further object of this invention to provide a wire way cover support post and control apparatus mounting channel for an electrical control panel which cooperate with the flat surface of the panel to secure the support post in any one of a plurality of laterally adjustable positions.

These and other objects and advantages will become more apparent in the following specification and claims when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIGURE 1 is a plan view of an electrical control panel segment having a plurality of electrical relay devices mounted in two rows upon mounting channels and showing the wire way cover support post of this invention secured thereto;

FIGURE 2 is a cross-sectional view of the assembly of FIG. 1 taken along line 2-2 thereof;

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary side elevational view of the mounting channel and wire way cover support post of this invention taken in the direction indicated by line 3-3 in FIG. 2; and

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectioal view of the mounting channel and support post assembly illustrating the interconnection between the members prior to securing the assembly to a control panel.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT In FIG. 1 there is shown a control panel member 2 to which a pair of mounting channels 4 are secured by screws 6. The mounting channels 4 have a shallow U-shaped cross-sectional configuration as may be seen in FIGS. 2 and 4 with outwardly extending flanges 8 at the outer ends of each leg.

Each channel is formed as a repetitive series of individual mounting portions for securing electrical control relays 10 (shown in broken lines in FIGS. 1 and 2) or the like thereto. Each mounting portion of the channel contains a pair of screws 12 captivated in threaded openings formed in the flanges 8 for securing the relays to the channel and a pair of keyhole shaped slots 14 formed in the base of the channel for accommodating the screws 6. The junctions between adjacent individual mounting portions of the channels 4 are provided with an elongated transverse slot 16 in the channel base and transversely alined slots 18 in the flanges 8 to facilitate breaking or cutting a standard channel to the exact length desired.

As so far described, the panel builder may secure the mounting channels 4 to the panel 2 by forming tapped openings in the panel 2 for receiving screws 6, there being preferably one such screw per channel every third or fourth relay.' The relays are subsequently readily secured to the channel 4 by the captivated screws 12 to greatly reduce the erection time of the panel.

The space between the two rows of relays forms a natural wire way for the control panel To protect and conceal the conductors within these wire ways, cover members (shown inbroken lines in FIGS. 1 and 2) are provided which snap onto upstanding post members located at various points thercalong midway between the two rows. Cover members 20 are generally elongated, extruded strips of resilient plastic or the like which have a pair of centrally located depending ribs 22 (FIG. 2) formed to snap over a necked-down portion of the support post members.

The panel of FIG. 1 includes two of the support posts 24 of the invention, one of which is shown in dotted lines as being concealed by a relay 10 and the cover strip 20. Each support post 24 is an L-shaped member having a fiat horizontal positioning leg 26 from which the post portion 28 is formed perpendicularly upwardly. The outer end of post portion 28 is suitably formed to receive the snap-on ribs 22 of cover member 20. The end of horizontal leg 26 adjacent the post portion 28 has a depend ing boss 30 formed on its underside. The opposite end of'horizontal leg 26 has a first cylindrical boss 32 formed on its underside from which a second, reduced diameter cylindrical boss 34 projects downward to form a stepped cylindrical positioning nib.

Each mounting portion of mounting channels 4 is provided with an alined pair of openings 36 in the sidewalls, or legs, of the channels, the openings 36 also extending partly into the base of the channel. .The channel base is further provided with a row of alined circular openings 38 extending between the two openings 36.

In the drawings the support post members 24 are shown to extend both from the same channel member. This need not be the case in all instances for it should be readily apparent that one or more support members may extend upwardly into the wire way from the lower channel if desired. i

Support post members 24 as shown in the drawings are assembled to one of the channels 4, the upper one in the drawings, prior to securing that channel to the panel 2. As seen in FIG. 4, the horizontal leg 26 is inserted through the opening 36 in one of the sidewalls of the channel 4 and is pivoted downwardly upon the base of the channel wherein the smaller projection 34 fits within a selected one of the holes 38. The particular hole 38 is chosen which will position the post portion 28 nearest the mid-point of the dimension X (FIG. 2) betwten the two rows of relays, While holding the support posts loosely in place, the channel may be slipped over the screws 6 on the panel 2 and slid to the narrow portion of the keyhole slots 14, and the crews 6 tightened.

In FIG. 3 it may be seen that the openings 36 have a substantially rectangular shape over a width at least as great as the width of the horizontal leg 26. With reference to FIG. 2 it may be seen that the inner end of horizontal leg 26 is supported by the larger cylindrical projection 32 which rests upon the base of channel 4 around the periphery of the particular hole 38 selected, while the outer end of leg 26 is supported through the engagement of boss 30 upon the surface of panel 2. The location of the upper edge of opening 36 is chosen to be slightly in interference with the upper surface of horizontal leg 26 to thereby exert a force across the width thereof toward the panel 2 to hold the support post 24 rigidly in place.

Thus there has been described a support post member for a wire way cover which is laterally adjustable and requires no holes or other formations in the panel over and above those ordinarily needed to secure the mounting channel thereto. While but one particular embodiment has been disclosed, it is to be understood that this invention is susceptible of various modifications without departing from the scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. In an electrical control panel, a wire way cover supporting means comprising, in combination;

an elongated mounting channel secured to said panel for mounting a plurality of electrical devices thereto in a row, said mounting channel having a base portion and a pair of upstanding sidewall portions extending along the length thereof;

an opening in a sidewall of said mounting channel;

a member overlying the base portion of said channel and extending transversely outwardly of said channel through said opening in said sidewall;

complemental means on said base and said member interfitting to position said member against lateral movement relative to said base;

means adjacent the outer end of said member offset from the plane of said member to engage the surface of said panel;

a wire way cover supporting post extending from said member away from said panel and along the side of an adjacent electrical device in spaced apart relation thereto, said post having cover receiving and retaining means adjacent the free end thereof; and

means on said mounting channel overlying said member and exerting a force upon said member to hold the latter securely upon said channel base and said panel surface.

2. The combination according to claim 1 wherein said complemental means on said base and said member cooperatively interfit to position said members against lateral movement relative to said base at any one of a plurality of transversely spaced positions relative to said channel.

3. The combination according to claim 2 wherein said complemental means comprises a plurality of transversely spaced apertures in said base and a depending projection on said member, said projection extending into one of said apertures to position said member against lateral movement relative to said base.

4. The combination according to claim 1 wherein said means overlying and exerting a force on saidmember comprises an upper edge of said opening in a sidewall of said channel through which said member extends.

5. The combination according to claim 4 wherein said upper edge of said opening is formed flat over a length at least as great as the width of said member and is at a level wherein it is in interference with the upper surface of said member.

6. The combination according to claim 1 wherein said wire way cover supporting post is adjacent the outer end of said member.

7. The combination according to claim 6 wherein said wire waycover supporting post is an integral portion of said member formed to extend away from said panel.

8. In an electrical control panel, a wire way cover supporting means comprising, in combination;

a pair of elongated mounting channels secured to said panel in parallel, spaced' apart relation having a plurality of electrical devices secured thereto to form two parallel, spaced apart rows; said devices and said panel defining the sides and bottom of a wire way, respectively, said mounting channels each having a base portion and a pair of upstanding sidewall portions extending along the length thereof;

at least one of said channels having a plurality of longitudinally spaced openings in one side wall thereof adjacent said wire way and each opening having at least one aperture in said base portion transversely alined therewith;

at least two members overlying said base portion of said one of said channels at longitudinally spaced .points therealong and extending transversely outwardly of said channel and into said wire way through corresponding ones of said openings in the sidewall of said channel, said members each having:

a depending projection engaging a corresponding transversely alined aperture in said base portion to position said member against lateral movement relative to said base; means adjacent the outer end of said member olfset from the plane of said member to engage the surface of said panel; and a wire way cover supporting post extending from said member and away from said panel within said wire way, said post having cover receiving and retaining means adjacent the free end thereof; and wherein the upper edges of said corresponding ones of said openings overlie the respective members between the opposite ends and across the widths thereof to exert a force upon the respective members to hold the latter securely upon said channel base and said panel surface.

9. The combination according to claim 8 wherein a plurality of transversely spaced apertures are provided in said channel base in transverse alinement with each of said openings in said sidewall to afford selective engagement of said depending projection of a respective one of said members with one of said apertures, thereby providing transversely outward adjustment of said member with respect to said channel.

10. The combination according to claim 9 wherein said Wire way cover supporting post is an integral portion of said member formed to extend away from said panel adjacent the outer end of said member.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 4/1959 Dorfman et al 317-119 7/1968 Goudy et a1. 317-119 

